These are just some of the remarks I have heard during the past few weeks.

I am being recognized almost every where I go, and I have been listening to outraged residents. My faith in humanity is slowly being restored by observing how this community is joining together to make sure this ruthless act never happens here again.

These are just some of the remarks I have heard during the past few weeks.

I am being recognized almost every where I go, and I have been listening to outraged residents. My faith in humanity is slowly being restored by observing how this community is joining together to make sure this ruthless act never happens here again.

The geese were gassed while they were molting and could no longer fly, enabling Gaston County Parks and Recreation Director Cathy Hart and the USDA to capture and kill them easily and quickly during the early morning hours of June 25.

The county paid $1,666 to have this done, which was unnecessary since Carolina Waterfowl Rescue was willing to take them for free and they wouldn’t have been killed.

Even counties located outside Gaston County want to voice their opinion about how they feel about this unnecessary act against the beautiful innocent wildlife trying to live in Dallas Park.

Many people I have spoken to are concerned about what kind of message the gassing of these geese sends our children. This massacre seems to imply that if you don’t like something or if it annoys you, it’s all right to just kill it. This message is not acceptable to parents trying to teach their children virtuous morals and values.

And one of the best places to teach these values such as love and kindness for our wildlife is in our parks.

I’ve spoken to grandparents who have said the only reason for their coming to the park was because they loved the geese and enjoyed watching their grandchildren feed and interact with them. They told me how their grandchildren cried and cried after they found out all the geese were dead.

The gassing of these geese was extremely brutal because of the lung structure of the Canada geese, which enables them to hold their breath for up to an hour.

A sterile park is not natural.

Gaston County is a proud and independent community that appreciates its wildlife and will not tolerate a heartless parks director who secretly and unnecessarily gasses our wildlife simply because some people complain and resent doing a little cleanup work.

This is a great example of how one county coming together for change can send out a strong message to other counties about how we the taxpayers who pay the salaries of these county park officials and workers are no longer going to stand by and allow them to make decisions behind our backs that we do not support.

Whatever it takes, we will join together and do. We will watch our parks and public areas where the geese make their homes like hawks. We will write letters to our governors and congressmen and to anyone who will listen until we have new policies in place expressing exactly what our parks are and are not allowed to do in Gaston County.

Then hopefully other counties will follow suit and eventually the USDA will at least no longer have their pockets lined with blood money from the killing of our valued geese.

I am sure there are other atrocities that the USDA is involved with that need to be addressed, but what I have been hearing from hundreds of good residents from and around Gaston County is that at least for now, their interest lies in protecting our precious geese.

Duffeck is a Carolina Waterfowl Rescue volunteer and a citizen of Gaston County.